Thoughts on soccer and coaching from the University of Evansville Head Coach

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Rooney: MLS has potential to be among best in world

Manchester United star Wayne Rooney will be getting his first taste of an MLS club on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium when his team faces the New England Revolution (8 pm, ESPN, ESPN Deportes), but that didn’t stop him from making a bold prediction about the future of America’s top-flight league.

And the England international forward backs up his claim, pointing to what he’s seen from the American players with whom he has crossed paths back home. All of them have deep connections with MLS.

“American players who have played in the Premier League have done very well,” he said. “Brian McBride, I’ve played with him at Everton. Joe-Max Moore when I was a young lad [at Everton]. Clint Dempsey has done really well. Brad Friedel has done incredible over the last 10 years.

“When you see the way they play and then you look at the MLS, it’s similar to the way they play. They work hard. They’re physical. They’ve got quality.”

And while American fans may be hard on US national team coach Bob Bradley and his squad, Rooney offers an outsider’s perspective, which sustains Bradley’s view that the USA are appreciated abroad — often more so than they are at home.

“The way the US played against us in the World Cup, they’re so committed,” Rooney said of the 1-1 draw between England and the USA in last year's World Cup. “And I think for any team to have players who are committed like that, it’s a great ability to have to be committed and work hard.”

It’s that American hardworking spirit that Rooney is counting on to help the Red Devils get in shape to win their 20th Premier League title.

“On this tour, it’s important for us to get the fitness working and be fit for that first game of the season,” he said. “And in three of the games [vs. New England, Seattle and Chicago] we know we’ll do that because teams in MLS are physical teams and work hard. And that will push us as well to get more work in the games.

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If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youBut make allowance for their doubting too,If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;If all men count with you, but none too much,If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!